Weekly anb06146.txt #8

[anb-bia <anb-bia at village.uunet.be>]

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WEEKLY NEWS ISSUE of: 14-06-2001      PART #6/8

* Nigeria. Shell and others inspect Ogoni spill site  -  Despite warnings 
by the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) that the Shell 
Petroleum Development Company should shelve the inspection visit to the 
Yorla oil spill site in Khana Council, the company said it went ahead with 
the visit unhindered. External Relations Manager East, Mr. Donald Boham 
described the visit as a remarkable development in the company's bid to 
gain access to its facilities in Ogoniland. He disclosed that the Yorla 
community was quite receptive to the joint team that went to the spill site 
yesterday. Boham said Shell and other members of the joint inspection team 
comprising of representatives from Department of Petroleum Resources, 
Federal and Rivers state ministries of environment, Khana Council chairman, 
representatives of the 17 communities affected by the spill and some Rivers 
State government officials were given a cordial reception as they were 
allowed access to the spill site. Boham said the technical team was able to 
secure well 5 and 10, saying that the company has 16 wells in Khana and 
with this development, it hopes to secure the remaining 14 wells 
soon.   (The Guardian, Nigeria, 12 June 2001)

* Nigeria. Clamping down on officials' flights  -  The coveted trip abroad 
may be a thing of the past for the wives of some of Nigeria's politicians. 
Government officials in south-western Nigeria have been summoned before 
legislators to justify plans to pay for the wives of about 20 local 
politicians to go to London for unspecified training. Legislators in Ekiti 
state have condemned the proposed trip, although the state governor has 
said it will give the women exposure to the outside world. There are few 
details of what exactly the wives of local government chairmen from Ekiti 
state hope to achieve in London, but a leading human rights lawyer, Femi 
Falana, has already threatened to go to court to prevent the trip. He 
argues that the wives are not elected officials, so they have no right to 
spend public money. But the women of Ekiti are not alone in their desire to 
learn more first-hand about how the rich democracies work. In Akwa-Ibom in 
south-eastern Nigeria, the entire state assembly, along with civil 
servants, is planning a two-week trip to the United States. Their itinerary 
is still vague, but an official said the people of Akwa-Ibom would be the 
ultimate beneficiaries. Legislators in Ondo state in the south-west have a 
similar plan to travel en masse to Europe.   (BBC News, UK, 14 June 2001)

* Rwanda. Shocked at Arusha acquittal  -  The United Nations court looking 
into the Rwandan genocide handed down a not guilty verdict for the first 
time on 7 June. Ignace Bagilishema, formerly mayor of Mabanza commune in 
western Rwanda, was accused of being instrumental in the murder of 45,000 
Tutsis. The judges said that the prosecution failed to provide enough 
convincing evidence. The Rwandan Government said it is shocked by the 
acquittal of Mr Bagilishema, who it described as one of the most 
"notorious" criminals from the genocide. Reading the judgement, Norwegian 
Judge Erik Mose spoke of the "paucity" of the evidence against Mr 
Bagilishema, and said that the testimonies of many of the witnesses 
presented against him were contradictory and unreliable. By a majority of 
two to one, the panel of three judges found that there was insufficient 
evidence to support any of the seven charges against Mr Bagilishema. 
Throughout the trial, Mr Bagilishema had always maintained that he had 
tried to protect Tutsis, but had not been able to prevent all the attacks. 
He was presented by his defence team as a good mayor dedicated to peaceful 
co-existence of Hutus and Tutsis. The prosecutor has already said that he 
intends to appeal against the acquittal, and has also requested that the 
tribunal keep Mr Bagilishema in custody for another 30 days, in case he 
flees or poses a threat to witnesses. The tribunal's normal procedure is 
for acquitted suspects to be released immediately.   (BBC News, UK, 7 June 
2001)

* Rwanda. Procès  -  A Bruxelles, dans le procès-fleuve, qui a débuté le 17 
avril, contre les "quatre de Butare" accusés d'avoir participé au génocide 
rwandais de 1994, le jury a rendu son verdict dans la nuit du 7 au 8 juin, 
après plus de dix heures de délibérations. Les quatre accusés (le 
professeur Vincent Ntezimana, l'industriel Alphonse Higaniro, et deux 
religieuses bénédictines Gertrude et Kizito) ont été reconnus coupables. A 
la grande majorité des 55 questions posées au jury, celui-ci a répondu 
affirmativement, mais il s'est partagé sur certains chefs d'accusation. Les 
jurés ont dû ensuite se retirer encore pour fixer les sanctions que ce 
verdict implique. Le jugement est prononcé dans la soirée: Higaniro est 
condamné à 20 ans de prison, Sr Gertrude à 15 ans, Sr Kizito et Ntezimana à 
12 ans. - D'autre part, le 7 juin à Arusha (Tanzanie), le Tribunal pénal 
international pour le Rwanda a prononcé, à l'unanimité des trois juges, son 
premier acquittement au profit d'Ignace Bagilishema, ancien maire de 
Mabanza. Les juges ont estimé que le procureur n'avait pas fourni la preuve 
de sa culpabilité. Le parquet a fait appel.   (ANB-BIA, de sources 
diverses, 9 juin 2001)

* Rwanda. Rwandan troops claim victory  -  7 June: Officers say that 
Rwandan troops are engaged in mopping-up operations in the north-west of 
the country, after claiming victory against rebel forces in fierce fighting 
on 6 June. Reports from the area stated that troops loyal to Rwanda's 
minority Tutsi community-led government had battled more than 1,000 rebels 
from the country's Hutu majority. Colonel Jean Bosco Kazura told the 
Reuters news agency that 150 rebels were killed in the clashes, with 
government forces deploying helicopter gunships and rocket propelled 
grenades. Officers say there have been no casualties on the government 
side. The rebels are remnants of the extremist regime toppled in 1994 after 
carrying out the genocide in which hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and 
politically moderate Hutus were slaughtered. Exiled in neighbouring 
Democratic Republic of Congo, the rebels have fuelled instability across 
the Great Lakes region and central Africa. Attacks against Rwanda itself 
have increased in recent weeks, amidst efforts to promote the peace process 
in Congo. The Rwandan army says it has killed 400 rebels during the past 
month, said to be part of a larger force that has infiltrated border 
districts. 10 June: Rwanda accuses the Democratic Republic of Congo of 
sponsoring the recent wave of cross-border rebel attacks. Rebel activity 
has also intensified in neighbouring Burundi. "When the negative forces 
continue to fight, we know they're supported by the Congo government and 
its allies," Patrick Mazimhaka, Rwandan President Paul Kagame's special 
envoy for the Great Lakes region, told Reuters. Mazimhaka has accused 
Congolese President Joseph Kabila of arming and supplying the rebels in 
violation of a peace accord signed in Lusaka in 1999, saying he had backed 
the rebels to increase military pressure on Rwanda and Burundi. "There is 
now a plan to redeploy, not in favour of peace, but to redeploy to continue 
the war," he said. Kabila's government denies arming the rebels, and has in 
turn accused Rwanda of sending troops into Congo in violation of the Lusaka 
deal.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 11 June 2001)

* Rwanda/Belgium. The Brussels trial  -  7-8 June: The 12 jury members 
reach a decision after deliberating into the early hours of the morning. 
The four defendants, two nuns, a professor and a businessman, on trial 
before a Belgian jury, are found guilty of crimes against humanity. The 
Prosecution has also called on jurors to help to seek justice for 800,000 
victims who lie in Rwanda's mass graves. The jury was answering a complex 
questionnaire, which posed 55 separate questions on the guilt or complicity 
of the four accused. The jury delivered not-guilty verdicts for four of the 
55 counts. 8 June: Sister Gertrude is sentenced to 15 years in a Belgian 
jail for her role in the massacre of some 7,000 people seeking refuge at 
her convent in southern Rwanda, and Sister Maria Kizito to 12 years. 
Alphonse Higaniro is sentenced to 20 years and Vincent Ntezimana to 12 
years. The Court orders them to be immediately arrested. Amnesty 
International says it welcomes the judgement. Reed Brody, advocacy director 
of Human Rights Watch, tells the AP: "This is a big step forward for 
international justice". 9 June: An official statement from the Vatican says 
that the Church cannot be held responsible for the individual actions of 
its members against the Gospel law. They must be called to render account 
for their own actions. At the same time, the Vatican wonders if the accused 
were able to make their own version of events heard, in a foreign country 
so far from Rwanda. (...)The Vatican cannot but express surprise in 
observing that a few individuals are blamed for the grave responsibilities 
of numerous men and groups, who were also involved in the genocide that 
took place in the heart of Africa.   (ANB-BIA, Brussels, 11 June 2001)

* Rwanda/Congo-RDC. Mouvements d'Interahamwe  -  Des sources proches des 
forces de l'ordre font état d'importants mouvements des milices Interahamwe 
vers le Rwanda, en provenance de l'est de la RDC. Les mouvements semblent 
être coordonnés et laissent supposer une certaine organisation politique et 
logistique. De violents combats ont éclaté, le mois dernier, au nord-ouest 
du Rwanda, opposant l'armée régulière aux rebelles pour la première fois 
depuis 1999. Des sources émanant des préfectures de Ruhengeri et Gisenyi 
font état d'un climat d'anxiété croissant au sein de la population. Les 
analystes régionaux ont signalé que les Interahamwe, les ex-FAR et les 
rebelles burundais quittent actuellement leurs cantonnements en RDC pour 
revenir dans leur pays respectif avant la mise en application de l'accord 
de paix de Lusaka, qui prévoit leur désarmement et leur démobilisation au 
Congo.   (IRIN, Nairobi, 11 juin 2001)

* Rwanda. Rural poor forced to leave their homes  -  On 11 June, Human 
Rights Watch said that the Rwandan government has violated the basic rights 
of tens of thousands of people by forcing them to abandon their homes in 
rural areas and move to makeshift dwellings in government-designated sites. 
The government's massive plan to re-organise life in the rural areas, known 
as the National Habitat Policy, decreed an end to Rwandans' customary way 
of living in dispersed homesteads. Many homeowners are forced to destroy 
their own homes and many families lived for more than year in hovels made 
of sticks, mud and banana leaves.   (HRW, 11 June 2001)

* Rwanda. Regroupements de force  -  L'organisation humanitaire Human 
Rights Watch accuse le gouvernement rwandais d'avoir forcé, depuis 1997, 
des dizaines de milliers de paysans à quitter leurs fermes pour des 
villages de fortune créés pour l'occasion. Selon HRW, "le gouvernement 
rwandais a violé les droits de base de dizaines de milliers de personnes en 
les forçant à abandonner leurs foyers dans les zones rurales et se 
regrouper dans des habitations de fortune sur des sites désignés par les 
autorités". HRW fait allusion à la Politique nationale de l'habitat, sujet 
déjà controversé sous le gouvernement Habyarimana. Plusieurs gouvernements 
rwandais ont mis en avant l'impossibilité, pour un pays pauvre comme le 
Rwanda, de financer l'électrification et l'adduction d'eau pour tous, alors 
que l'habitat traditionnel est dispersé, sans parler de l'occupation de 
terres fertiles des vallées par des constructions. Mais le regroupement des 
habitants le long des routes se heurte aux traditions. L'opposition au 
régime actuel y voit aussi la volonté de mieux surveiller la 
population.   (La Libre Belgique, 12 juin 2001)

* Rwanda. Trial of the "Butare Group" begins  -  12 June: The joint trial 
of six persons jointly charged with Genocide, Crimes against Humanity and 
Serious Violations of the Geneva Conventions, in what is called "the Butare 
Group," commenced today before Trial Chamber II composed of Judges William 
Sekule (Tanzania), presiding, Winston Churchill Matanzima Maqutu (Lesotho) 
and Arlete Ramaroson (Madagascar). The accused in the joint trial are 
Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, former Minister for Family and Women Affairs, (the 
first woman to be indicted by an international criminal tribunal and the 
only woman to be indicted by the ICTR so far), her son and former leader 
the interhamwe militia, Arsene Shalom Ntahobali; former Governor of Butare, 
Sylvain Nsabimana; former Commanding Officer of the Military Police and 
former prefect of Butare, Alphonse Nteziryayo; former Mayor of Ngoma, 
Joseph Kanyabashi; and former Mayor of Muganza, Elie Ndayambaje. The trial 
began with the opening statement of the Prosecution, which gave an overview 
of the prominent role played by the six accused persons in the commission 
of the crimes in Butare, a famous religious and academic centre in Rwanda. 
The Prosecution told the court that it would prove beyond reasonable doubt 
that the accused are guilty of the crimes they are charged with and are 
criminally responsible for their actions and those of their subordinates. 
The Prosecution added that it would do so through presentation of 
documentary evidence, and evidence from expert and factual witnesses, 
proving that the accused caused action, made speeches, used the media, 
distributed arms and trained militia, in committing the crimes.   (ICTR, 
Rwanda, 12 June 2001)

* Rwanda. Le "groupe de Butare" en jugement  -  Le procès du "groupe de 
Butare", six anciens hauts responsables rwandais accusés d'avoir organisé 
les massacres de Tutsi dans cette région du Sud lors du génocide de 1994, 
s'est ouvert le 12 juin devant le Tribunal pénal international pour le 
Rwanda (TPIR) à Arusha. Parmi eux figure la première et seule femme accusée 
jusqu'à présent: Pauline Nyiramasuhuko, ex-ministre de la Famille et des 
Femmes. Comparaissent à ses côtés son fils, Arsène Ntahobali, chef d'une 
milice, l'ex-gouverneur de la préfecture de Butare, Sylvain Nsabimana, 
l'ancien chef de la police de Butare, Alphonse Nteziryayo, ainsi que les 
anciens maires de Ngoma, Joseph Kanyabashi, et de Muganza, Elie Ndayambaje. 
Ils sont tous accusés de génocide et de crimes contre 
l'humanité.   (Libération, France, 13 juin 2001)

Weekly anb0614.txt - #6/8